Twelve Days of Weasleys
by SomethingLover217
Summary: Christmas Holiday at the Burrow? Rose bringing home her boyfriend Scorpius? Yeah, that'll end well. Oh, and when all the cousins know about their relationship and the adults are in the dark? Uh-huh, that's sure to go over nicely.
1. Prolouge

**Prologue**

Rose Weasley walked into the Great Hall on December 23 and sat down in her usual seat at the Gryffindor table. As if on cue, dozens upon dozens of owls began streaming into the room from the enormous window above the head table, dropping mail in front of students from each of the four houses.

She gazed longingly at the snowy, barn, and brown owls as they flew around the hall. She'd been begging her parents for an owl since first year, but they always came up with some excuse as to why she couldn't have one.

"It's too much to handle," her mum would say. "You already have so much going on at school this year. You're a prefect with Kevin Thomas, you're captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and need I mention the nine N.E.W.T. level classes you're taking?"

Rose tried to explain that she was perfectly capable of handling all of that and more, but that didn't even matter, because her mum simply would not listen. Not even when Rose told her that the owls lived in the Owlery and that it wouldn't take much for Rose to take care of one did her mother's opinion sway.

Her dad was even worse. He would just side with his wife and tell Rose that she could just borrow James or Dom's owl. Not that there was anything wrong with using Dom's owl, but it would be so much nicer to have her own, and her parents wouldn't even consider the idea!

Rose was pulled out of her thoughts when a large grey owl zoomed down into her breakfast plate, splattering maple syrup from her pancakes onto her robes and hair. Needless to say, she wasn't pleased.

"James." She spoke softly, her voice wavering with anger. "would you please explain to me why, after almost seven years," she was yelling now, "you still haven't found the time to teach your damn owl how to fly?" Her voice dripped with contempt.

Now, if there was one this that scared James Potter, it was an angry Rose Weasley. "Er, listen Rose, I'm really sorry. Aeolus isn't the best at landing, you know that. He's not the best at flying, either. Or navigation. And he doesn't always come back…. But come on Rose, this isn't my fault!" The younger girl glared at him.

Fred called from where he and Al were sitting with their buddies a few seats down from her. "Come on, Rosie-posie, lighten up!"

If looks could kill, Fred would have been hit with killing curse, then had so many strange muggle weapons used on him that nobody would be able to tell if he was even a human being. Rose wasn't fond of her childhood nickname, but Fred, Al, Louis, Hugo, and James would seemingly never stop calling her that, if only because it annoyed her so much.

Rose looked down at her robes and sighed. She couldn't walk around in these all day! Once, just once, Rose would have liked to be able to sit down and enjoy breakfast just like everyone else did. Evidently, today was not that day.

She looked up and down the table, wishing to find any one of her friends to come back upstairs with her so she could change. Rose watched Lily and her best friend, Daisy Longbottom, as they debated whether Professor Dorian, their Transfiguration teacher, and Professor O'Riley, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, would ever be able to have a civil conversation.

"Daisy, come on, everyone knows that they hated each other in school. Why would they get along now?" Lily tried to explain.

"Oh, really?" Daisy questioned. "Because, if I recall, Rose and Scorpius couldn't stand each other for most of the time we've all been in school, and they're friends now."

Scorp jumped in, smiling. "A bit more than friends, I'd say."

It was true. Last April, Scorp and Rose had kissed at Hogsmeade, totally out of the blue, and they'd been going out ever since. Nobody had known about them until Halloween, but it became a bit obvious to all of the Weasley and Potter cousins that the two were dating when they came to the Halloween Ball together. Daisy and Lily, along with Rose's friends Alina Wood and Pammie Finnegan, claimed to have known long before the ball, but everyone knew they hadn't.

The ball had become an annual tradition about ten years ago, when Teddy and Victoire were still in school. The goal was, as always, to promote house unity. Of course, some good it did. The only people who'd been "united" by the ball were James and another Hufflepuff girl he'd been crushing on since third year, Amanda Finch-Fletchley. Professor Dorian had found them in the potions storeroom having a bit more than just a snog and gave them each a month of detention. Separately.

That had been a bit of a blow for James, and he hadn't been acting quite like himself lately. Rose thought he was just embarrassed about being caught with Amanda, because every time Rose and her friends were close by, he clammed up and became very awkward.

Of course, Hugo, James, Al, Louis, and Fred weren't too happy with Rose and Scorp's little announcement. Al had actually hit Scorp so hard in the head he was out of class for almost a week!

It had been hard to keep their relationship a secret from their parents, but they were finally going to tell them over Christmas, since Scorpius was coming to the Burrow anyway. After all, he was best friends with Fred and Al.

Rose was worried about how her parents would react over the next two weeks, while they were home. She knew they loved Scorpius, but her father's temper was not something she would enjoy having to deal with on Christmas.

Looking up the table in the other direction, Rose saw her roommates Alina and Pammie sitting with Dom and her friends from seventh year, eating low-fat yogurt and fruit. She groaned at their girly-ness and grabbed an enormous banana chocolate chip muffin, which she estimated would be around nine hundred calories before walking over to her girlfriends. Rose had a perfect body no matter how much she ate, so she didn't understand the concept of trying to eat well to lose weight.

"Hey," she greeted everyone, taking a bite out of her muffin. "Can one of you please, please, please come upstairs with me? James's owl –"

"Yeah, we saw," Pammie called, not even letting Rose finish her sentence.

"Oh, Pammie," Rose muttered to herself. "Always one to be frank."

Alina giggled. Apparently she'd heard her friend's little remark. "I'll come with you." She grabbed an extra strawberry yogurt and started walking out of the hall with Rose. Before they could make it very far, Roxie called out to them from where the fifth years were sitting.

"Rose! You forgot your letter!"

Of course! The whole syrup situation with the owl had made Rose totally forget about the letter that Aeolus had been trying to deliver! She ran over to her seat to make sure no one else got to the letter before she did. If that envelope contained what she thought it did, she wanted everything to be a surprise. That meant Scorpius couldn't know, Alina and Pammie couldn't know, even Al and Dom, her favorite cousins still in school, couldn't find out. Or, at least not yet. They'd find out tomorrow when everyone arrived at the Burrow.

"Rose!" Alina was still waiting for her by the door out of the Great Hall. "Let's go. We have Herbology first and Neville will flip if we're late."

Rose caught up with her, and they left the Great Hall, beginning to make their way up to Gryffindor tower. She smiled. "What happened to calling him Professor Longbottom while we are at school?"

"Who cares? I take that as a suggestion. It's more like, 'call him Professor Longbottom while you're at school, but only if your parents, another teacher, or someone who doesn't know him on a first name basis is the person you are talking to. And only during the school year.'"

"Wouldn't it be easier to just call him Professor all the time at school? Even Daisy does that!"

"Oh, Rose, it's the principle of the thing! It's annoying to call him Professor, so I don't. At home, I call Pastor Fredrickson by his first name, just not to his face. My mum does, too."

Deciding it would be better to just let it go than attempt to win an argument with Alina, Rose walked in silence the rest of the way up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Password," the Fat Lady grumbled, angry for being interrupted during her conversation with her best friend, Violet.

"It's, uhhh…. Oh, that would be…maybe not, is it? No, the password is…. No, that's not right." Alina stammered to herself.

Emma Creevey pushed both girls aside. "Jingle Bells," she said, and the painting swung off to the side. Rose and Alina got up and dusted themselves off.

"It's amazing how much of a bitch she is when Dennis is so nice to everyone!" Rose growled.

Alina snickered. "It's not that hard to believe when Romilda Vane is her mother!" The two girls giggled.

"Achem," the Fat Lady cleared her throat. "Will you two be going inside, or do I have to wait here, open, when a student from another house could slip in at any moment?" she yelled.

"Sorry!" They cried, and ran inside so Rose could change her robes. She ran over to the staircase on the left and started climbing up. Alina went up the staircase on the right, and didn't even notice her friend go up the other side.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Rose slid down the stairs as they changed into a slide and the Wailing Klaxon started screaming.

Alina walked back down the stairs and met her friend, crumpled up into a ball, at the bottom of the transfigured staircase. "Went up the boy's side again?"

Rose got up and began walking up the correct staircase. "It's instinct."

"Really? Because that's a bit pathetic. It's more instinct for you to go up to the guy's dorms than to go to your own? And besides, you should be used to that happening by now. It's been a year and a half."

"I don't get why they left the jinx on the staircase! Why did they do it in here anyway? She was a Slytherin, and she graduated last year!"

On the first night of Rose's fifth year, after everyone had gone back to their rooms but before they had fallen asleep, a certain Slytherin seventh year came into the seventh year boys' dorm and was harassing them, to say the least. By morning, the same jinx that kept boys off of the girls' staircase in each house had been added to each boys' staircase. And it was all because of Nancy Zabini.

Well, technically no one knew why, but Scorpius and Nancy were family friends, and he'd known her since he was a kid. Apparently Nancy's mum, Pansy, had been almost as bad as Nancy when she was in school. "Like mother, like daughter," he'd told Rose.

"Rose, are you done yet? We only have five minutes to make it down to Herbology!" Alina called from where she was lying on her bed.

"Yeah, just once more second!" Rose yelled back.

"Rose!" she growled. "Hurry up!"

Rose stood in front of Alina's bed, dressed in a new set of robes. "I'm ready. Let's go, yeah?"

"Okay." She stood up. She gasped. "Oh, no, I left my bag in the Great Hall!"

Crossing her arms, Rose said, "Really? After you spent all that time when we were down there telling me to hurry up?" She smiled. "Come on."

Alina and Rose ran down the spiral staircase, through the portrait hole, and down seven flights of stairs to the Great Hall. Everyone had already left for their first class, and the hall was eerily quiet. Eerily empty as well.

Rose shifted from foot to foot. "Alina, can you just find your bag? It's creepy being in here all alone."

"Got it!" her friend shouted from under the Gryffindor table.

"Well then let's go! We're late already and Neville's going to have our hides!"

"Alright, then, go!"

**A/N: Hi everyone! I'm really proud of this chapter, so I hoped you all liked it! The next chapter will be Christmas Eve, the next Christmas, and so on. Well, kind of. You'll see! Anyways, if you have any ideas for what Rose, or Scorpius, or anyone should get for Christmas, PM me, or leave it in a review!**

**Please review. Whether you flame, leave ideas, or just let me know you're enjoying the story, it means a lot.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Dom, Lily, Pammie, would you all kindly finish packing?" Rose nagged. She stood in the Gryffindor Common Room, calling up the stairs to her cousins and one of her best friends. "We're waiting!"

Rose felt a familiar pair of arms wrap around her waist and rock her back and forth. "Maybe they should take a bit longer, so we can have some alone time," her boyfriend whispered into her ear.

She turned around, not at all surprised by the presence of two Slytherins in the room. Rose hooked her arms around the blond teen's neck and looked into his smoky grey eyes, almost seven inches above hers. At 5'4", Rose wasn't one of the tallest girls in her year, but she wasn't the shortest, either. That honor was left to Pammie. Still, Scorpius towered over most of the sixth and seventh year boys at 5'11".

"Mmmm, but we're going to have two whole weeks to be alone together," Rose said into Scorp's collarbone. "With no first years getting lost on the way to class, no cousins who want to copy our homework just because we are the only ones who actually do it, and no professors yelling at us for 'public displays of affection in the corridors,'" Rose laughed.

Chuckling, Scorpius reminded her, "No, we'll just have the Scammanders getting lost in the yard looking for nargles, your cousins trying to steal our Christmas gifts, and our parents and your aunts and uncles just about exploding when we tell them about us…." He pulled Rose closer to himself and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

Al, who had been sitting in front of the fire trying to ignore his two best friends behind him, coughed. Then he coughed again. And again.

Rose groaned. "Something wrong, Albus?"

"What?" He asked, feigning surprise. "It's not as thought you two were sucking each other's faces in the middle of the common room!"

Rose unwrapped herself from Scorpius's grasp and walked toward the couches until she was only a few feet away from Al. She stood over him and said, "Oh, were we? Because I thought it was only an innocent kiss! You certainly do more than that with Emma Creevey!" It seemed like Rose was loud enough to be heard in the dungeons Al and Scorpius called home. "Even though none of us can even stand her! At least Scorp and I have the decency not to start snogging each other in the middle of the Great Hall, during class, or just whenever we see each other!"

Scorpius put his hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Rose. It's not a big deal."

She sighed. "You're right, I –"

"Hey!" Dom called, running down the stairs with her trunk. Lily and Pammie trailed behind her. "What are you all standing around for? We've only got an hour before the train leaves."

"Yes, I wonder. We couldn't possibly have been waiting around for a few girls to finish the packing they could have done a week ago." Rose smirked.

"Oh yeah?" Lily retorted. "I don't see your trunk anywhere. Didn't you pack anything to bring to the Burrow?"

"As a matter of fact, I did." Rose held up a beaded purple bag ."Mum gave me her bag from the war. It's got an undetectable extension charm on it. Everything I need is right in here."

Lily shook her head. "Well alright then. Can we go now?" She took it upon herself to usher everyone out of the room. Once everyone had filed out of the portrait hole, Dom took charge and counted all of her cousins and whichever friends of theirs were coming to the Burrow for Christmas.

"All right," she told the group. "We've got Pammie, Al, Scorpius, Lily, Rose, Hugo, Fred, and Roxie. We're meeting Daisy Longbottom outside the Hufflepuff common room, and Louis is going to catch up with us by the Great Hall. It's not worth it to go all the way around to Ravenclaw Tower just to pick him up. So, is that everyone?"

"Pffft! Ravenclaw," Scorpius jokingly muttered under his breath.

Rose casually punched him on the arm. "You're one to talk! Ha, Slytherins!"

"Hey, where are James and Alina?" Roxie called. Each of the Weasleys, along with Al, Pammie, and Scorpius, turned their heads. No one had seen either James or Alina all morning. "Well," Roxie added worriedly, "I suppose they'll turn up, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Yep"

"Definitely."

"No need to worry."

A minute passed before Fred broke the odd silence. "So…" he tried. "Breakfast, anyone?"

"Do you ever think about anything other than food?" Pammie nagged. "Shouldn't we go try to find Alina? Or James?"

"Not worth it," his cousins chorused.

"When James doesn't want to be found, that's it. He won't be found until he lets us," Hugo explained.

Lily laughed. "Didn't exactly make it fun to play hid-and-seek when we were kids." Everyone agreed.

"Can we go now?" Fred cried. "I'd like to have some time to sit down and eat before we have to rush to the train, if you all don't mind."

"Fine!" Rose shouted back, sick of her cousin's complaints. "We'll go to dinner!"

Hugo giggled. "Breakfast."

"Breakfast, then! Can we just go already?" She grabbed her bag from the floor and stormed off in a huff, Scorpius chasing after her.

"Rose!" he cried as he caught up to her. She stopped running and sagged against the wall. "Come on, don't be angry." He hinted at a smile. "Fred's always hungry. It was only a matter of time before he started asking for food. He takes after your dad!"

"Yeah, but then he also takes after his own dad, all the time playing pranks on us! I'm sick of everyone making fun of us, and talking about your dad, and my dad, and I just want everyone to stop it but they won't!" she sobbed.

"Shhhh, everything's alright," Scorpius soothed her. "Do you want to skip breakfast? It was great getting to eat with you all yesterday. I just love how McGonagall lets us all sit wherever we want together on the last day before Christmas. It's so nice to sit with you."

Rose sniffed. "Yes, it was nice. But, we've got to eat something, don't we?"

" If you're terribly famished, there's always the snack cart on the train. Let's go sit out by the lake, just you, me, and the Giant Squid." Rose smiled. "Come on, you know you want to!"

"All right," Rose happily agreed, "But now we only have forty minutes before the train leaves."

"Then that gives us thirty-eight minutes before we have to worry about anything."

* * *

><p>Fred burst through the doors of the Great Hall and ran to sit down at the Gryffindor table so he could stuff himself with food. Dom, Lily, Al, Roxie, Hugo, Pammie, Daisy, and Louis, whom they had met outside of the Great Hall, followed him in, but when all of her friends went off toward their table trimmed in scarlet and gold, Daisy turned in the other direction and walked over to take her place at the Hufflepuff table. Louis did the same, and found a seat at the Ravenclaw table with all of his friends from third year. Al walked over to the Slytherin table and set his bags down, but then came to sit with his cousins instead.<p>

"Anyone see James or Alina?" Lily asked her cousins. Everyone looked around the room, but the pair was nowhere to be found. "Maybe they left early for the train?" she tried.

"Don't be so daft!" Hugo laughed at her. "Really, James? Early for something? That's a riot!"

Roxie joined in. "Yeah, I don't think he's ever been on time for one of our classes, not once in all seven years. Right Dom?"

"It's true."

"And Alina isn't really one to be early for things, either," Pammie said.

Al jumped in, "They're more likely to be off in a closet having a snog than trying to be somewhere early." He suddenly had that sinister glint in his eye he only got when he had a "brilliant idea" that was bound to go horribly wrong. He jumped up from his seat. "Anyone want to come to the potions storeroom with me? James always likes to… hang out there."

Fred stood up and said, "I wouldn't miss it for the world," only his mouth was so stuffed with food it came out more like, "Eh wouln mishi for wer."

"Right…. Come on, then, let's go! Can you imagine the look on James's face if we catch him with Alina?"

"I really don't think she would –" Lily interjected, but Fred and Al were already running toward the dugeons. "Hmph! Well, they certainly won't be finding Alina with James, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, yeah," Hugo shushed her. "Believe what you want, either way I'm going to have a laugh. It's simply a question of whether that laugh is at Al, or at James."

"Oh, just eat your toast."

* * *

><p>"The storeroom door is locked. I can't get it open."<p>

"You git, how could you not remember? _Alohomora!_" Fred and Al heard the click of the door unlocking. "First year, Al, and you forgot it."

"Whatever." He looked up and down the hallway. "Ready?" Fred nodded. As quietly as he possibly could, Al turned the door handle. Then, in one swift motion, he threw open the door.

"Al! Fred! What the bloody hell!" James screeched, yanking his arms out from under Alina's shirt and prying his lips off of hers.

"Oh hello there, brother dearest. Having a bit of a snog, I see?"

"Albus. Severus. Potter. YOU GET OUT OF HERE THIS INSTANT, DO YOU HEAR ME? And you too, Fred!"

He smirked. "Sorry, Alina, I was only trying to make sure my brother was okay," he said in a mockingly innocent voice. "No one had seen him all morning."

"Al, get out."

"Alright James, I'll go tell Rose where you've been. She was worried about you two."

Alina gasped. "You wouldn't."

"You're right, I probably wouldn't. It's so fun knowing something Rose doesn't!" He grinned. "Well, I'll see you later, then." He started to walk away. "Oh, and the train leaves in half an hour, just to let you know."

"Oh, we'll be there."

"Great! See you again soon!" he turned to his accomplice. "Ready to go, Fred?"

"All ready." They stalked off, back to the Great Hall.

Alina groaned. "James, is Al going to tell Rose, do you think?"

He beamed at her. "I doubt it. He just likes one-upping me. He won't tell a soul."

"Alright, then," she replied, fixing her robes and giving James one last kiss. "I'll see you on the train!" she said and ran out of the potions storeroom.

* * *

><p>Scorpius looked at his watch. "We should get walking. Twenty minutes till the train leaves. There are," he counted people in his head, ticking off each person on his fingers, "twelve of us, so we'll take up, oh, two carriages?" He chuckled. "And maybe a separate one, just for you and me."<p>

"I'd like that. I'm sure we'll be in need of some time away from everyone quickly, and I'd rather not have to spend that time in the caboose of the train."

"Well then, Miss Weasley," Scorpius bowed low as Rose giggled. "Your carriage awaits you."

"Oh, my dear Mr. Malfoy, do accompany me to the Burrow, if you will."

"I would love to, Miss Weasley. But I do have one request."

"And what would that be, good sir?"

"I would be honored, dear lady, if you would be my date to the annual Malfoy Yuletide Ball tomorrow evening."

"I…. What?"

Scorpius stood up straight again. "Tomorrow night, my parents are holding their annual Christmas ball. I was hoping I wouldn't be invited this year, but, sure enough, the invitation showed up a few days ago. I've been trying to find a good time to ask you, because I assumed you wouldn't want to come."

"Why wouldn't I want to go? Wait – why wouldn't you want to go?"

"I figured you would rather be at the Burrow for Christmas. I certainly would. Of course," he took her hand in his. "if you would come with me, we could still have a fun time."

"I'd love to. I mean, your parents aren't so bad. I think they like me, actually."

"Excellent!" he gave her a long, loving kiss on the lips. "Well then, we had better get to the train, shouldn't we?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thank you all so much for your support during the loooong writing period for this story. Everyone who favorited the prolouge or subscribed to the story really helped push me along and keep me motivated, especially when it had already been a month since I'd put it up and people were still reading. An extra-special-super-duper-thanks goes to cherie-24-addict for her support and (very strong) opinions on just about EVERYTHING. **

_**Web brownies and cyber cookies for anyone who reviews!**_


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Chanukah everyone! It means a lot if you review!**

**Chapter 2**

"Rosie, Rosie! Wake up, it's Christmas!"

"Come on, let's go open presents!"

"Ugh! Good…morning?"

"Yep, Rosie, Christmas morning!"

"Get up!" Seven year old Molly and four year old Lucy pounced onto Rose's bed in her room at the Burrow.

"Girls, do you know what time it is?"

Lucy said, very proudly, "I looked at the clock when we woke up, and we came straight to you. It said five, three, two!"

Rose's eyes bugged out of her head. "You mean five thirty-two?"

"Uh-huh!"

"In the morning?"

"Yes!" Molly answered. "So can we go open presents now?"

"Tell you what," Rose told her, lifting the two sisters onto her lap. "Let's wait until some more people wake up, okay?" Lucy nodded. "Nana Molly and I have this really cool idea for Christmas this year. We wanted to tell everyone at breakfast, but maybe I should tell you now?"

"Yes, yes, tell us, Rosie!" the two girls shrieked.

"Alright, shhh, you have to quiet down if you want me to tell you." Their squealing stopped instantly.

Molly whispered, "We'll be extra special quiet."

"Good. Maybe we can go sit in the kitchen? And then I can tell you all of the cool things were going to do for Christmas."

Lucy ran for the door. "Molly, Rose! Hurry, I wanna know!"

"Okay, but remember, you have to be quiet. Let's go."

They tromped down the stairs, not exactly as quietly as Rose might've hoped. Once the three girls had sat down at the table and Rose had poured a glass of milk for each of them, it was time to tell her younger cousins about her Christmas surprise. "Well, first of all," she said, "you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? It's a secret until Nana Molly and I tell everyone."

Scorpius jumped off the last stair and onto the kitchen floor. "What's a secret?"

"Scorp!" Molly and Lucy cried while they ran to him. "What are you doing down here? Rose says it's really early in the morning."

"Well, I heard three loud girls running down the staircase, thought I'd come investigate."

Rose blushed. "Sorry. I tried to keep them from being too loud."

"No worries, I used to wake up this early on Christmas morning when I was their age. Now," he said with a smirk and a glint in his eye, "what is this secret of yours, Rose?"

"Come sit down if you want to hear! Molly, Lucy, you too!"

"Coming." Rose crossed her arms and tapped her foot while she waited for Scorpius and the girls to come.

When he finally sat down, she began to explain. "For starters, I was supposed to tell everyone this on the train yesterday, but Scorpius and I were a bit…busy," she told her cousins.

Lucy asked, "Busy doing what?"

"Oh," Scorpius answered. He was obviously lying, but Lucy was so trusting at her young age she was eager to believe anything. "we just had all of those prefect duties, so we didn't have much time to talk to everyone else."

Rose held in a laugh. It had definitely been worth it to save an extra carriage on the Hogwarts Express for themselves. So what if their so-called "duties" had been more along the lines of cuddling in the cold weather? It hadn't hurt anybody, and now she would just tell everyone her news later.

"Anyway, Scorp and I were really busy on the train, so I didn't get to tell anyone about this fun game we're all going to play together during Christmas holiday."

"Ooh, I like playing games."

"I know you do, Molly. Ready to find out what it is?" She nodded. "This year in Muggle Studies, we've learned about religious ceremonies of muggles. There was one I really liked the idea of the most. It's called the twelve days of Christmas. We only went into basic details in class, so I didn't know too much about it, but I did some reading in the library, and I thought to myself 'why can't we have twelve days of Christmas?'"

"I don't get it Rosie. So we get tons of presents every day for twelve days? That's the best idea ever!" Molly and Lucy exclaimed.

"Yeah, Rose, what's your thinking here?"

"Well, Scorpius, I was just getting to that. You see, I was thinking, what if we spread out Christmas over the course of twelve days? So, instead of getting all of our presents today, we get one today, one tomorrow, one the next day, and so on, for twelve days. Get it?"

"Hmm," Scorp thought. "I like the idea. Do you think your mum and dad and everyone else will go along with it?"

"You seem to forget Nana Molly's on my side."

"Ah, how could I forget? In that case, I guess we're having twelve days of Christmas." He pulled Rose out of her seat, spun her around, and planted a big kiss of her lips. "You, my dear, are brilliant."

"Don't sell yourself short! You helped me come up with the idea!" she said, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend.

"Did I?"

"Yeah. You kept talking about how you wished you could experience something the way muggles do, and I just thought that this would be a good way to do it."

"Like I said, you're brilliant," he told her lovingly and gave her another kiss.

Lucy gagged. "Ewww, that's gross!" Molly lightly punched her on the arm

She told her sister, "I think when you get big like they are, it's not gross anymore."

"Oh," Lucy whispered back. "I didn't know that."

"But why can't we just do Christmas like normal, Nana?" Louis asked.

Rose, along with her friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, mum and dad, and grandparents, sat in the middle of the living room. A lot of the girls in the room loved the idea of twelve days of Christmas. "I'm sure it must have been soooo romantic in the old days," Lily had said. The boys, however, were still skeptical.

"Because your cousin Rose had a great idea of how we could have Christmas like muggles used to, and I would enjoy learning. So, we are ALL having twelve days of Christmas. It's perfect, because twelve days ends on January fifth. Then you go back to school on January sixth, and have the weekend to relax and have fun with your friends before going back to classes."

Charlie asked, "Mum, are you sure this makes sense?"

"I'm sure. So, today Grandad Weasley and I are giving everyone our gifts." Nana Molly stood up "Arthur left his under the tree. I'll go get mine, I left them in my room."

Before she could get out of the room, Aunt Audrey said, "Molly, would you like me to come help you? We've got a lot of people this year."

"Sure, dear, I'd appreciate it."

"Mum, I'll come too," Aunt Ginny offered.

Nana Molly smiled. "Yes, alright, let's go then. Everyone else can open their presents from Grandad while we're gone."

James, Al, Lily, Rose, Hugo, Molly, Lucy, Fred, Dom, Roxie, and Louis all raced to the Christmas tree and started calling out everyone's names as they found people's presents.

"Victoire, here's yours and Teddy's."

"Lily, this one has your name."

"No, Lucy, that's your name. See? It's spelled different than Lily's."

"Yeah, I have Uncle George and Aunt Angelina's over here."

"Well, pass it over."

Arthur watched contentedly from his armchair as his grandchildren found their Christmas presents. But, he realized, not everyone had received their gift. "Scorpius? Daisy? And you two, Alina and, Pammie, was it? Why don't you go get your presents?" They stared at him, dumbfounded. "Oh, you didn't think I'd forgotten about you lot, did you? Go on, find the ones with your names on them!"

"Thank you, Mr. Weasley, that's very kind of you," Pammie replied respectfully.

The four of them ran over to meet their friends in the mess of bodies surrounding the tree. Finally, each person had their present in front of them. _Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!_ Everyone turned to stare at where the noise had come from. Lily whispered in her friend's ear, "Daisy, we all wait to open them at the same time."

"Oops! I'm so sorry, I forgot!"

"No worries, dear," Arthur consoled her. "Well, what are you waiting for?" He was addressing all of the people in the room now. "Open your presents!"

The sound of ripping gift wrap filled the room for a few minutes. Then, "An egg beater?", "A computer mouse?", "Batteries?"

"Dad, what's with all of the muggle gadgets?" Uncle Bill asked.

Arthur sighed. "Your mum is making me clean out all of my muggle items from the storage room. But, I know how much you all love them, so each of you gets a piece of my collection!"

"Great."

"Scorpius," Rose asked. "What did you get? I got a toaster."

"Umm, I think it's a television remote control." They laughed.

For a few more moments the whole group simply talked and had a good time, until Nana Molly, Aunt Audrey, and Aunt Ginny returned with all of the infamous Weasley sweaters.

Molly sat down in her easy chair and started calling out names as she passed out the knitted sweaters. "Let's see what we've got here. Okay, we have Hermione, Fleur, Arthur, Lucy, James, Alina, Rose, George…" It took almost ten minutes for Molly to hand out all her handmade gifts. "And last we have Scorpius, Ginny, and myself." She gave out the last of the sweaters and pulled on her own.

"Oh, you all look so precious!" she exclaimed. Next, Molly noticed her grandchildren squirming in their seats. "You all want to go off and do your own thing now, don't you?" A murmur of agreement came from around the room. "Fine then, go on. Christmas dinner is at six. Scorpius, will that give you and Rose enough time to… get where you are going?"

"Uh, yes Mrs. Weasley, thank you so much, that's plenty of time, my father's ball doesn't start until half past seven, and we could just floo over a few minutes before," he stammered back.

"Excellent. Now, run along."

"Of course. I'll see you later." Rose grabbed his hand and pulled him upstairs. "Whoa! Rose, what's up?"

She gave him an excited look as she said, "You, me, Madame Malkin's at Diagon Alley, now."

"Huh?"

Rose checked her watch. "We have eight hours until Christmas dinner, nine and a half until your parents' ball. I need to go to Diagon Alley and get a gown, and I'd really like it if you could come with me.."

"Okay, well how are we going to get there? I don't think Madame Malkin has had a floo installed yet, even after all these years," Scorpius told her.

She only smirked in return. "Scorp, you turned seventeen in October. You can apparate now. Oh, don't give me that look. I know your dad taught you how over the summer."

Scorp laughed. "I'm impressed. I always say it, you should have been a Slytherin." He smiled cheekily at Rose. "Well, if I can apparate, let's go! You don't mind side-along apparition, do you?" She shook her head. "Excellent, grab my arm. Ready? One, two three!"

"Whoa!" Rose stumbled as she and Scorpius landed in Diagon Alley outside Florean Fortescue's. His grandson had reopened the shop after the war using the old name, and no one was happier than Uncle Harry, who had apparently spent a lot of time eating Florean's famous ice cream the summer before his third year.

Scorpius threw out his arms to catch her, then pulled her in close to him. "Got you," he grinned. Rose wriggled out of his grasp, giving both of them a chance to take a good look around. "It's so…empty," Scorp mused.

"It's brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen this place so quiet, and I came to visit Uncle George at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes for dinner on the twentieth Battle of Hogwarts remembrance day!"

"That's Christmas for you, I suppose."

"Yeah. Come on, let's go inside, it's freezing out here." They walked down the street a bit, past all of the familiar stores from their childhood. Finally, the couple stopped in front of the Madame Malkin's small dress shop tucked between a place that claimed to have the thickest bottoms on their cauldrons and a fairly large under-17 bar that sold non-alcoholic drinks, including butterbeer. Of course, if you knew the right guy, there was always a way to get some firewhiskey as well.

Scorp sighed. "Do you remember getting our school robes here, first year?"

"Six years ago. Godric, we're getting old!" Rose joked. She pushed open the doors, which made a tinkling sound as she dragged Scorpius inside.

"Merry Christmas, how may I help you?" a short woman with a walking cane asked them.

"I need a gown for a ball tonight. Do you have anything in," she looked over at Scorp, who seemed very out of place among all of the over-the-top ballgowns. "emerald green?" He nodded. Good. Draco and Astoria liked green. Excellent information to know. Or maybe just anything Slytherin?

"Yes, dear, emerald. When did you say you needed it again?" the old woman asked.

"Erm, tonight?" Rose squeaked.

Madame Malkin coughed. "Oh, my! We better hurry up!" The dresses in the room were mainly arranged by color, so Rose helped pull over the few racks filled with green dresses.

"Good, now what size are you, honey?"

Turning back to Scorpius, she wimpered, "I'm a ten. I'm trying to lose weight, everyone's skinnier than I am. But right now…." She trailed off, not quite knowing what to say.

Meanwhile, Scorp had made his way over to the dress racks. He lifted one up, obviously surprised at the weight of what he was holding. Every bit of the slinky cocktail dress was covered in bright green and silver sequins. Even when he lifted it up as high as possible over his head, six inches of the dress were left sliding on the ground. Scorpius thought it looked like something Pansy Zabini would like. "How do you wear stuff like this? It must weigh fifteen pounds!"

"Precisely why I don't wear stuff like that. Here, this one's much better." Rose held up a different option from the rack that Madame Malkin had brought over. "Much simpler, much lighter, much more…me."

Madame Malkin interrupted them. "Do you want to try this one?"

"Yes, please," Rose said, and followed the hunched-over witch to the dressing rooms at the back of the store. As she buttoned up the back of the ballgown, it felt only the slightest bit tight, but Rose was so nervous she had the feeling she wouldn't be eating too much tonight anyway. Pushing aside the flimsy curtain, she stepped into the much brighter light of the main room.

"Well," she started tentatively, "how do I look?"

Scorpius's jaw dropped. His gaze washed over everything about his girlfriend. The short sleeves of the dress that cupped Rose's shoulders perfectly, the small twisted knot in the middle of her chest, the full skirt billowing out from her waist, or the cascading swirls decorating it from around mid-calf to the floor. Then Rose turned around so her back faced him. The tiny buttons running from her neck to lower back made the dress just that much more flirtatious. "I—I –I…"

"Oh Merlin, is it that bad?"

"What, no! Rose, you are the most beautiful person I have ever had the privilege to lay eyes upon."

"Aww! You really mean that? Because I could try on a few more dresses –"

"No! This is the one. Trust me."

"Alright, then. Madame Malkin?"

A crash came from the storeroom. "One moment! Are you getting the gown?"

"Yes, this is the one!"

Eventually the old witch hobbled out, brushing dust off of herself and she walked to the counter. "The dress costs seven galleons, with alterations."

"What alterations?" Scorp asked. "We need the dress in just a few hours."

Rose giggled. Sure, she could be a tomboy sometimes, but it was still amusing to see how oblivious all of the boys she was friends with acted. "There's a charm, a really advanced one, that makes the gown fit exactly to your form. I'm not up to that level yet, so I need to pay extra."

"Oh, okay, I guess." He didn't sound too reassured. Rose counted out the galleons, then gave Madame Malkin an extra one to add pockets so she wouldn't have to worry about carrying a bag that night.

"All right, dear, all done. I assume you won't be taking the dress with you?"

"Nope. Can you floo it over to the Burrow, Weasley residence, please?"

"I can get it there in an hour. Good day to you both, and merry Christmas!" she called as Rose and Scorpius left the shop and stepped out into Diagon Alley again.

"So," Scorpius began. "We have around six and a half hours before we need to be at the Burrow for dinner." He started walking along the rows of shops, not really headed anywhere.

"Yeah…."

"We have Diagon Alley to ourselves."

"Yeah…."

"Ready to check out every single store our parents won't let us into?"

"Only you, Scor, only you."

"I'll take that as a yes. Come on!"

Rose took a deep breath. She knew she shouldn't go down there. Even her parents didn't want to go. But there was something so exciting about what lurked down the steps to Knockturn Alley. The dark shops, the evil merchandise, and just the unknown. Still, she couldn't do it. "Scorp, I can't do this. I just can't go down there."

"You sure? It could be pretty interesting. My dad brought me down there once when I was younger. I think he was trying to sell some of Grandfather's old things."

"He won't be there tonight, will he? Your grandfather, I mean."

"Merlin, I hope not. I think I hate him more than your mum does."

"Wait, what do you mean about my mum?"

"My dad. He, erm, told me what happened at the Manor during the war. You know, with my Aunt Bellatrix," he answered, quiet and ashamed.

"Oh. Uh, maybe we should go home now. Nana Molly could always use more help, since she's cooking dinner for thirty seven people. Also, I'm sure all of the girls are going to ambush me. You know, try to do my hair and makeup for the ball."

"Thirty seven? I thought there were thirty of us."

Rose grinned. "You forgot yourself, sweetie," she said sarcastically. "Neville and Hannah are coming too, and Luna and Rolf are bringing Lorcan and Lysander. Molly and Lucy are thrilled, they are such good friends with the boys."

"Wow. As if your family isn't huge as it is!"

"Oh, you know you love us all!" Rose shouted. "Come on, let's go." She grabbed his arm, and a moment later they stumbled into the living room at the Burrow with a _pop!_

"Rose!" Lily shouted as she ran in with Dom, Roxie, Alina, Pammie, and Daisy.

"Madame Malkin came through the floo with your gown a minute ago. We waited until you got home to look at it, though." Dom explained. They looked at her expectantly.

"Go on," Scorpius told her. "You looked amazing in it. Show them!"

"Alright," Rose agreed shyly. She turned to her cousins and friends. "Come on, let's go upstairs." The squealing girls followed her to her room.

"Girls, I think we're done."

"Why thank you, Roxie," Rose said. "I'm glad it took six of you three hours to figure out how to make my hair and makeup look good."

"Well, we would have spent more time finding you the perfect look, but since you insisted on helping Nana Molly cook dinner. That cut down our time by almost two hours before we could pull you away!"

Rose stood up to look in the mirror. Her fiery hair had been loosely curled with rollers and now a large barrette clipped above her ear held it all back from her face. While Roxie, Daisy, and Lily worked on her hair, Dom, Alina, and Pammie had tried all kinds of different makeup combinations. The final decision had consisted of light makeup, but colors that perfectly accented Rose's eyes and the emerald dress.

"Girls!" Fleur called up the tall staircase. "Ze dinner ees ready!"

"Coming!" Dom told her mother. She ran down the stairs, Rose and the other five girls following. They scampered into the living room, which had once again been magically enlarged so everyone could fit. Each of the adults had already taken a seat and were waiting for their kids.

From the kitchen came Nana Molly's screech. "Rose! Dom! Roxie! Come help me and your Aunt Ginny bring out all of the food!"

"Coming, Nana!" Rose called back. As she carried out her mum's famous muggle pumpkin bread to the long table, she couldn't help but hope Christmas dinner wouldn't turn out the way it did last year. Rose shuddered. If she ever saw Uncle Bill and Uncle Charlie dancing like that again…. Well, she didn't want to think of the emotional scarring she might have afterward.

Finally, the Scammanders and Longbottoms arrived at the Burrow and the entire Weasley family, along with their friends, waited with baited breath for Molly's two words: "Tuck in!"

Surprisingly, the feast went rather well, Rose thought. Sure, there were a few minor mishaps; Nana was nagging Uncle Bill about his long hair again; Ron and Ginny got into yet another debate over whether the Chudley Cannons or Holyhead Harpies were a better team, with Alina jumping in about how Puddlemore United was undefeatable with her dad playing keeper; Hermione, on the other hand, had been totally clueless about Quidditch and instead only asked, "Oh, yes. Alina, how are Oliver and Katie doing nowadays?"; and there was always someone, usually Fred or James, who tried to break into Arthur's firewhiskey. Apparently now that James was seventeen and legal, Al felt the need to do it in his brother's place. "Never a dull moment," Aunt Angelina had laughed.

Yes, everything was going to be fine, none of her cousins were going to mention her relationship with Scorpius, and no one was going to get angry. "So, Scorpius," George started in between bites of the pie Hannah Longbottom had made. "Why are you bringing Rose as your date to this ball tonight? It's not as if you're together or something!" he laughed. "You hate each other!" Okay, everything was so. Not. Fine.

But Scorpius, suave as always, laughed along with George. "You wouldn't believe it, but we actually don't anymore." He glanced at Rose. "Hate each other, I mean. I guess you could say we came to an understanding last year when Hugo and Louis locked us in the Shrieking Shack."

Teddy interrupted, "Scorpius, you know there's nothing –"

"Yes, Teddy, I know nothing is in there anymore, but we still couldn't get out. Point is, I would say Rose is my best friend now." Al coughed. "Second best friend." Fred glared at him. "Best friend who's a girl." Dom crossed her arms. "Best friend who's a girl," he repeated, staring back at the three of them. "At least."

"Really," Victoire asked. "You are bringing your best friend –"

"Best friend who's a girl," Al reminded her.

"Like I said, Al, his best friend." She turned back to Scorpius. "So, you are bringing your best friend as your date to this huge ball your parents are having, one that all of their friends and relatives will be at?"

He gulped. "Yes, exactly. Perfectly normal." Victoire shared a knowing glance with Teddy. "Well we should really be going," Scor said as he stood up from the table and checked his watch. "It's almost ten after seven and Rose still needs to get her dress on."

"Don't think you can sit down here while I get dressed," she told him. "I want to see you in some nice dress robes, not muggle jeans. This is a nice event." Everyone chuckled at Rose's way of taking charge.

"It's my parents' event."

"All the more reason to look nice. Now, come on. Up the stairs."

He turned back to the table. "I'll see you all tomorrow, then, for our second day of Christmas," he mentioned and followed Rose up the many flights of stairs to her bedroom. "So, this is your last chance. We really don't have to go to the ball if you don't want to."

Rose brushed her hand past his. "Scorpius, read my lips: We. Are. Going. To. The. Ball."

"You're sure?"

"Come on, your parents aren't the pureblood supremacists they used to be. I'll be fine." She ushered him out of the room. "Now go get on your dress robes. I'll meet you by the floo in, say, fifteen minutes?"

"Last chance. We absolutely, positively don't have to go."

Turning once again from her wardrobe, Rose questioned, "Scopius? Is there something you aren't telling me? What's so bad about us going to Malfoy Manor for the night?"

He sighed. "Nothing! Nothing at all, I just… err, don't want you to be uncomfortable, that's all. It's nothing, let's just go. I'll see you in a few minutes," he finished, and ran off without a second glance.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: PLEASE READ! SUPER IMPORTANT! I'm really upset about this, but I've only written enough chapters up until tomorrow. I know what I want to do with the story, I'm just having a hard time getting it on paper. The story will still continue, don't worry, I just won't be able to update every day anymore. *I'm so so so sorry everyone please keep reading!* **

**Chapter 3**

She'd be okay. She had to be okay. Why wouldn't she be okay? Al did it all the time, for Salazar's sake! Scorpius sat on the living room couch deep in thought as tears rolled down his face. Still, with a blood-alcohol level of2.4, things weren't looking up. Godric, why did his dad have to be such a prick! That man – when Scorp got his hands on him there would be hell to pay.

Why did he have to say something? Everyone was going to have a perfectly civil evening. There wasn't a single person who wasn't willing to be nice to Rose. Astoria, Narcissa, Daphne and her husband Jameson Durink, and their daughters Izzy and Beth were all trying to be kind to her and being inclusive. Even Lucius had done his best to refrain from saying anything blood purist. And then Draco just had to come in and ruin everything.

So now Rose wouldn't wake up and Scorp and his family weren't speaking. Not that Draco cared. All that git cared about was "being embarrassed in front of some very influential Ministry officials."

"Scorp?" Al asked tentatively. "Maybe you should get up and do something. Take your mind off of things."

"No."

"Well, at least just go for a walk."

"No."

"Why not?" he demanded.

Scorpius turned to him. "Maybe, just maybe, it's because the girl I'm crazy about could be dying upstairs and it's all because of my dad! Maybe I don't feel like acting as though Rose will be fine when I know she might not be. You know what her blood-alcohol levels are! It's so dangerous! And she wouldn't have drank a drop if my dad hadn't said anything to her last night. I knew we shouldn't have gone. I just knew it."

Albus gaped. "It's not your fault."

"I brought her there. My dad always says something to you and Fred when you come visit during the summer, how could I have possibly thought this would be any different?" Al didn't know what to say. Then, they heard a crash from upstairs. "Rose!" they yelled to each other. The two boys stumbled over themselves as they rushed to the staircase and into Rose's bedroom.

A decorative vase was in pieces on the floor. The ginger girl stood on top of the shards of porcelain. "Scorpius? Is that you?" she inquired, steadying her dizzy self against the dresser.

He rushed up to his girlfriend and pulled her into his arms. "Oh Merlin oh Merlin oh Merlin. Thank Godric you're okay. Whoa! Careful, Rose." She'd slipped on the pieces of the vase. "Let's get you back in bed, yeah?"

"I'm so dizzy. And my head is throbbing."

"I know, I know. Rose, I can't tell you how sorry I am. You'll be okay, I promise. Just go back to sleep. You need to rest some more."

"Okay. Will my head feel better later?"

"I hope so. I really, really hope so." Scor sighed. "Feel better, Rosie." He met Al back in the hallway with tears in his eyes. "Al, why is her hangover so bad? You drink more than that every weekend at school and you still make it to Quidditch practice on time the next day. What's wrong with her?"

Albus placed a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "I'm used to it. Rose has never had anything stronger than butterbeer. It's a big jump from that to nineteen bottles of firewhiskey. I've built up a tolerance to it, but her body isn't used to the alcohol."

"Will she be alright?" Scorp pleaded.

"I think so, but we'll just have to wait it out and see."

A few hours later, Rose still hadn't woken up from her nap. Meanwhile, Scorpius had discovered what his "thing to do while stressed" was. Apparently ripping up pieces of paper into tiny little bits was soothing for some people.

The entire family was on edge. Hermione and Ron weren't speaking, Molly kept snapping at her kids, and none of the kids felt up to doing anything. Everyone was just sitting around the living room fire trying to keep from going insane from worry. As Scorpius ripped up his papers, Alina clicked her pen, Hugo picked at his fingernails, and many others tried to keep calm in some way, the adults spoke in hushed voices at the back of the room. Scorpius didn't even have the energy to try and listen in.

The doorbell rang, but no one moved to open it. Finally, Ron stood up. "I'll get it." He left the room and the silence was deafening while the group waited to find out who could possibly be at the door the day after Christmas. "Uh, Scorpius?" Ron called from the front door. "You might want to get out here."

He stood up quietly and walked over to where his girlfriend's father stood, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw his mother standing in the doorway. "Mum, what the hell do you think you're doing here? Haven't you caused enough damage?"

"Scorpius, please. Calm down."

"Why would I calm down? I want you out of this house!"

"I'll just be going," Ron mumbled as he snuck out of the room. He had no inclination to get in the middle of a fight between two Malfoys. Not exactly a smart thing to do.

Astoria took a step inside. "Scorpius, just give me a minute to explain! You have no idea how angry I am with your father. Last night, I don't know what came over him. That wasn't the man I married. He's always been so accepting of different blood purities. Well, at least since the war."

Scorpius scowled. "Well, he's not usually in the company of, and I quote, 'muddy old blood traitors who wouldn't know high society if it stuck its arse in their poor little faces.'"

"He didn't really mean it dear, you know that."

"Really? Because that was the nicest thing he said to Rose all night. He hasn't changed a bit from when he was a kid," Scor snorted.

"Now Scorpius, that's a bit rash."

"I wouldn't say so. Now tell me: what are you doing here? You have no right to come here while we all are terrified for Rose's life because of you and dad!"

"I-I'm sorry. You have to understand; your father and I didn't mean to hurt anyone. He was just very stressed out last night. After all, planning the ball and all of his work at the ministry and taking care of Grandmamma Narcissa and Grandfather Lucius and keeping the entire Manor in order, it's all a pretty big job. It's taken its toll on him."

"That still doesn't make it alright!" growled Scorpius in return.

Astoria sighed. "Will you please try to look at it from his side? Or my side? Come, let's take a walk. Please, I really don't want to have another split up family just because your father said some stupid things." When she and her sister Daphne hadn't sided with their parents and the Dark Lord during the war, Astoria's parents had cut all ties with their daughters. Fortunately, they had reconciled a few years afterward, everything forgiven.

He stepped out of the house. "You have ten minutes to convince me I should ever speak to the rest of the family again." They walked toward the Quidditch pitch behind the house. "And by the way, this isn't just his fault. You and Grandmamma and Grandfather and Aunt Daphne could have stopped him. You and I both know that Uncle Jameson would win in a fight. Honestly, Mum, you expect me to believe there was nothing you could do to stop him?"

"Scorpius, I am so, so sorry, alright? I love all of your friends; why would I purposely hurt them? The Weasleys are nice people. I know that. It's just, I don't know, your father doesn't always think before he speaks." She was sobbing now.

"And he's hardly met Rose," she continued. "He had no idea how she would react. The thing is, dear, when he gets angry, your father is another man. Please, sweetie, try to forgive us, try to understand!" Astoria sat down on a bench next to the goalposts usually manned by Rose or Ron.

Scorpius sat down next to her. He sighed, then stayed quiet for a few moments. "I want to forgive you, mum, I really do." His voice turned sour. "But if Rose isn't alright, or if she doesn't wake up, I don't know what'll happen."

"Well, then I'll be expecting your call by tomorrow evening with an update." Scorpius gave her a confused look. "On Rose. I want to know what happens to her. You let me know if she's alright, and then I hope we can just forgive and forget." Astoria stood up, not quite knowing what else to say. "Um…. I'll just be going, then."

"Yeah, bye," Scor answered in an airy voice. He sat alone on the bench for a while after he watched his mother apparate away. He couldn't go back into the Burrow, after all. This was all his fault for bringing Rose to the ball. At the same time, there was no chance of him going back to Malfoy Manor. Not ever, as far as he could tell.

Inside the Burrow, moods weren't much better. Early in the afternoon, Lucy realized Scorpius was missing. No one knew where he'd gone, and he'd never come home after Astoria came. Some of the kids started getting worried.

"Dad," Al started, "We need to go out and find him. Scorp is so upset right now, for all we know he could've drowned himself in the pond out back."

Victoire groaned. "Al, the pond froze last month." Al stuck out his tongue at her.

"I don't know, Vic. Maybe we should go out and try to find the guy," Teddy said. He rubbed his fiancé's arm tenderly. "It couldn't hurt, and he's been gone for hours."

"Fine, you two have fun freezing your you-know-whats off out in the cold, I'll be in her by the fire, thank you very much."

"Hmph!"

"Scorpius, what the hell are you doing out here? It's been hours!" Teddy yelled when he saw the younger bloke sitting by the Quidditch pitch.

"Yeah? Well I'm not going back inside. I highly doubt I'm welcome back in that house." Scor pointed to the Burrow. "I'm not welcome anywhere right now."

"Scorp, cut it out!" Albus cried. "We want you back inside, we want you to come and help us understand what's happended to Rose, we want you to make her feel better, and WE DON"T NEED ANOTHER PERSON TO BE WORRIED ABOUT SO WHY DON'T YOU BLOODY COME BACK IN THE HOUSE!"

"No."

"Come on, Rose will be waking up soon and she's going to want to see her boyfriend," Teddy pleaded. Albus and Scorpius gaped at him.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," the blond replied calmly.

Teddy smirked. "I'm not as daft as I look. Last night? Yeah, I'm sure you were just 'bringing your best friend to Yuletide ball your parents were hosting.' Whatever you say." He put down the air quotes he had made with his fingers. His eyes panned across the frightened looks of his godbrother and his best friend. "Don't worry, no one but me and Vicky can tell. Assuming you already told everyone at school, that is."

"We told them at Halloween."

"Thought so. Anyway, my point is you need to come back because the embarrassment and hangover are going to be even worse if Rose doesn't have you there to hold her hand through it all." Teddy explained.

Scorpius sniffed. He knew Teddy was right, but would Rose even want to talk to him ever again after he let this happen to her? Shouldn't Scorp have protected his girlfriend from harm? Wouldn't the rest of the family be furious?

"Scorp, no one blames you and no one is angry. They 're just worried about you and Rose," Al said, answering his friend's thoughts. "Please, please, please come back with us."

When he tried to stand up, though, Scorpius only fell back onto the bench he hadn't left since much earlier that morning. Evidently, frozen toes didn't help when walking was the objective.

"Just give me a minute. Seems like my feet aren't cooperating very well today," he joked. He rubbed his hands back and forth on his shoes until some of the feeling was brought back into his feet. Finally, Scorpius, Teddy and Al made their way back to the Burrow.

Dinner was a quiet affair. No one was in any mood to make conversation and joke around like they usually did. Hardly anybody touched their meal. Even Molly and Lucy were silent.

The stairs creaked one by one without any rhythm. A few people turned from their meals, but most were so preoccupied with trying not to think about Rose they didn't even notice her standing at the bottom of the staircase.

Then she groaned.

"Merlin, Rose, you're awake!"

"Is she alright?"

"Ask her yourself, stupid!"

"ROSE!" Ron shouted louder than anyone else. She covered her ears. "Sorry. Erm…. Are you okay, honey? "

Rose nodded, but she looked in pain. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a nasty headache." She shielded her eyes from the lights around her. "And maybe a bit sensitive to light and noise. I'm sure I'll be better in the morning."

"Oh my god!" Hermione jumped up from the table and wrapped her daughter tightly in her arms. "Oh god oh god oh god. We were so worried about you, Rose!"

"Really? I'm sorry, I didn't mean – well, I wouldn't have meant to, you shouldn't have –"

Scorpius walked over to the stairs. "Rosie, everything's fine. Don't worry. Nothing's wrong now that you woke up." He smiled at her. Victiore, watching the exchange from off to the side, glanced at Teddy and smirked.

"Um, Scorpius?" Rose asked. "I've got a question." He looked at her expectantly. She took a deep breath. "I'm not really sure how to say this, but I can't remember. Scorp, what happened last night?"


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**December 27**

Lily carefully opened the door to Rose's fourth-floor bedroom to find the redhead lying face down on her full-sized bed. She looked just as bad as she felt, if not worse. Lily sat down next to her on the bed and began to (not exactly soothingly) rub her back. In fact, it was more like she was drumming on her cousin.

"Wake up, Rose. Come on, it's getting late. Wake uuuuu-uuuuuuppp!" she sang. Rose groaned. There had to be something that could get Rose out of bed without a bulldozer having to knock down the entire house. Ah, that was it. "You know, I think I smell Nana's cinnamon sugar chocolate chip pancakes cooking down in the kitchen."

Rose snorted, but sat up anyway. "Nice try, but Nana only makes those on birthdays." Still, she couldn't help but sniff hopefully, waiting for the aroma of her grandma's famous breakfast to reach her nose. Rose jumped up. "Merlin, she is making them!" She stared suspiciously at Lily. What was so special about today? It wasn't anyone's birthday, or half birthday, and if Teddy and Victoire were trying to say that she got pregnant before their upcoming wedding then this was a really bad way to be doing it. Uncle Bill might make Teddy take a long walk off a short cliff, and that would just ruin winter holiday.

"Well, we're all kind of in the mood for celebrating the fact that you didn't, you know, die yesterday." Lily answered Rose's thoughts. Her eyes bugged out of her head when she emphasized the word 'die.' "So, can we pleeeeeeeeeeeeease go get some before our brothers eat everything?"

Rose chuckled. "Yeah, let's go. I just need to change, brush my hair, and throw on a bit of makeup. Ooh, and do you think I should take a shower?" She raised an arm as if to prove her point. "I need to shave and I'm having some serious stink issues from sweating under that blanket all day yesterday."

Lily gaped. "Sweetie, the idea of the word hurry is that we go quickly, eat like pigs, and not care that your boyfriend is watching. Then you come back up here later to get all pretty and put-together. Oh, don't give me that look, I know it's because Scorp is going to be down there. Need I remind you that he saw you yesterday and on Christmas when you were hung over? Because when I say hung over I mean you were HUNG OVER. Like, big time."

"Great," Rose said sarcastically.

"It is! Now you don't have to care what you look like around him because he's seen you worse than anyone thought you could ever look, no matter what!"

"Gee, that sounds just peachy keen!" the redhead deadpanned. "Now he'll probably hate me for making a fool of him and his family in front of all those Ministry officials. I'll bet he wants to break up with me now. And the thing is, I won't even be able to avoid him because as far as everyone knows he came as Al and Fred's friend, not as my boyfriend."

"Oh, don't say that –" Lily started to say before she realized what Rose had said. "Hold on a sec. I thought you said you couldn't remember a thing. How do you know about the people from the Ministry?"

"It's kind of implied," Rose explained as she pulled a fresh pair of jeans, graphic T-shirt, and plain black cardigan out of her drawers. She'd unpacked as soon as they'd reached the Burrow on Christmas Eve. It was a lot easier than digging through the small beaded purse. "I mean, nobody would tell me anything last night about what happened, but it's kind of expected that there were people from the Ministry at the ball and that I embarrassed myself, which brings me to my conclusion."

Lily glared at her. "First off, I told you not to change out of your pajamas. We should be stuffing cinnamon sugar chocolate chip pancakes down our throats right now and you are trying to look nice.

"Second, I know that none of us told you what happened at the ball because it's not for us to tell. You need to ask Scorpius.

"And third," Lily stood up at this point, grabbed Rose's wrist as she reached for another drawer to retrieve her hairbrush, and pulled her onto the stair landing. "I let you get dressed, and now we are going to go gain ten pounds with Dom and Alina and Pammie and Daisy and Roxie." She prattled off the names quickly, so used to the large packs in which their families tended to travel.

"Fine, let's go." Rose agreed, albeit grouchily. She ran down the stairs and sat down at the kitchen table in between Roxie and Louis. Scorpius gave her a confused look, since there was an empty seat beside his, but she pretended not to notice. Everyone stared at her. "Well, since all the attention is on me," she said as she glared around the table. "I'll take this opportunity to ask, once again, what the hell happened the other night? And why don't any of you want to tell me?"

Suddenly, all of the people staring at her became fascinated with their plates or shoes. Scorpius piped up first. "Uh, we decided that it was better not to tell you."

Rose crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, is that so?" Daisy gulped. Scorpius pointed to the Hufflepuff.

"Daisy's dad has a pensieve, and we all agreed it was a better idea to show you what happened than to just tell. Daisy and I were hoping you'd be feeling well enough to go after breakfast." It sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Yeah, that's fine, I guess."

"Excellent." He grinned.

Louis broke the awkward silence that followed. Glancing at his youngest cousins, he said "I know you guys need to get going and all, but I think Molly and Lucy are going to have a fit if we skip the third day of Christmas, since we missed yesterday."

Molly's mouth was too crammed with food to agree, but she nodded. "Yeah, can we do presents now?" Lucy pleaded.

Scorpius was looking anxious, but Rose was willing to do anything so she wouldn't have to relive Christmas's events. "Sure girls, that's fine."

Most of the women in the house were awake already, but it wasn't a shock that Harry, Ron, Teddy, George, and Arthur were still asleep. So, when the group of teens, led by Lucy and with Molly acting as caboose, entered the living room, they were surrounded by all their aunts and a few of their uncles as well.

As Molly moved up to the front of the disorganized line to stand with her sister, Percy eyed them suspiciously. "Girls, does this have anything to do with missing Christmas yesterday?"

"No, Daddy, of course not! But now that you mention it, we did miss yesterday, didn't we? Maybe we could do it now?" Molly fluttered her eyelids and pouted just the slightest bit. Rose smiled. Seven years old and this kid already could wrap a man around her little finger.

Percy looked to Rose for an answer. Perhaps he was wondering if she was feeling okay? She gave him a reassuring nod. "Uncle Percy, we all are ready to open presents if Lucy and Molly want to," she said.

"Well then, let's get to it," Bill interjected. "But, there's just one problem: half the house is still asleep. We can't do gifts from parents, gifts from aunts and uncles…" he trailed off without finishing his sentence.

"We all have gifts for each other, though!" Roxie suggested. "We can give those." Everyone mumbled their general consent.

"James and Alina are missing again," Pammie said. "Does anyone know where they are?" Al and Fred started to laugh hysterically as if they had some inside joke, but it was obvious that they were trying to hide their laughter.

Dom turned to Fred. "And what, may I ask is soooo hilarious?"

He had trouble catching his breath to answer. "Nothing, nothing you need to worry about."

"Oh, is that so?" she questioned.

"Uh, yeah it is."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"Oh, you little –"

"Hey, you two!" Bill yelled over his daughter. "If you're going to kill each other, do it quietly. The rest of us would rather not have to listen to it." He smirked.

"Now, back to business," Hugo said as he felt a tug on his pajama pant leg from a certain four-year-old. "Ready for presents?"

Everyone laughed and giggled as they found seats around the tree. Presents were thrown, caught, ripped, and Merlin knows what else. Everyone received a "new and improved" Skiving Snackbox, courtesy of Louis and Hugo. Everyone had a few Puking Pastilles, Ton-Tongue Toffees, Nosebleed Nougats, and a variety of other, newer Weasley's Wizard Wheezes merchandise. It was a surprise no one was woken up.

"Roxie," Daisy whispered. "We should give Rose the gift from us and Lily."

Roxie agreed. "Get her out of the room, though. All our parents are around; we don't want to make a scene."

One bad excuse later, Rose found herself with the three younger girls, sitting on Roxie's bed. "What is this about? Scorpius and I were going to head out soon and –"

Roxie stopped her. "The three of us have a present for you. Just a little something we found in Diagon Alley that we thought you might enjoy."

Lily ran over to Roxanne's closet and pulled out a decorative bag stuffed with tissue paper. "I know what you're thinking, but we didn't sneak off campus to get this. Dom was telling us about it, because she was shopping with Victoire over the summer and then we used a school owl so no one would know that a bunch of underage witches were buying this stuff. They had a catalog and everything!"

Rose looked up at her suspiciously. "You still didn't tell me what it is."

"Then maybe you should open it, smart one."

She rolled her eyes, but pulled the tissue paper out of the bag nonetheless. She gaped at what she saw inside while Roxie, Lily, and Daisy fell over each other laughing. "You did not. No. You three just didn't. Please tell me this is a joke!" By now Rose's shock had changed to shared hysterics with her friend and cousins. "For the love of Merlin. I can't believe you did this!"

Daisy caught her breath just long enough to say, "Oh, but we did."

Rose lifted a piece of her present out of the bag. Lingerie. Lacy lingerie. Lacy lingerie with little tassels and bows and a matching bra…good lord. "You don't expect me to ever use this, do you?"

"What?" Lily said. "You don't have a boyfriend or something that you could use it on?"

Rose stared at her in disbelief, but there was still laughter in both their eyes. "You're kidding, right? Like Scorp is ever going to see this," she said, shaking her head. She packed up the bag and its contents before stepping onto the staircase landing and levitating it into her room.

"So, who wants to go back downstairs and not tell anyone about this?" Daisy asked.

"ME!" the others chorused through giggles. They ran back into the living room, where all the adults had finally finished cleaning up the aftermath of the Skiving Snackboxes.

Just as Rose finally melted back into normal conversation, Scorpius popped up behind her. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she gulped, making no move to rise from her seat on the couch. Truthfully, finding out what had happened at Malfoy Manor was just about the last thing Rose wanted to do today, even if it was the right thing to do. The couple made their way out of the room, out the front door, and onto the grassy front lawn. Once the couple had passed through and closed the front gate, Scorpius looked to Rose. She nodded to tell him she was ready. There was the usual odd feeling of apparition and then Rose and Scorp found themselves in muggle London outside the Leaky Cauldron, where Neville's wife Hannah worked as the landlady. The Longbottom family lived in a flat above the bar.

Rose stood frozen in her spot on the sidewalk while Scorp attempted to pull her inside, but it was no use. She was absolutely terrified of what she might see in the pensieve. There was no way she was going inside that flat. Over my dead body, she scoffed.

A car horn honked at the pair, which had accidentally backed up into the street. This frightened Rose even more, and she jumped back onto the curb. However, she'd let her guard down. Scorpius took this as an opportunity to clutch her hand in his and drag her into the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside, she stared him down. Oh, someone's not amused, Scorpius chuckled to himself.

"Rose! What a pleasant surprise! Well, Daisy sent an owl over saying you two would be coming around, so I suppose it's not really a surprise, but it's good to see you anyway. You too, Scorpius."

"Thank you, Mrs. Longbottom."

"I don't know how many times I am going to have to say this to you, but please just call me Hannah. You call me Mrs. Longbottom and I'll call you Mr. Malfoy." Scor flushed bright red, an interesting contrast with his pale skin. It didn't flatter him.

"Sorry, erm, Hannah."

She smiled and turned to face Rose. "So, Daisy said you would need to use Neville's pensieve, is that right?" Rose nodded. "And who has the memory you need to see?"

Scor raised his hand. "That would be me."

"Okay, then. If you both can come with me I'll show you where we keep it." Hannah led Rose and Scorp up two flights of stairs, down a long hallway, and through a fragile door that was one hard slam away from falling off its hinges. The room was round, with a pedestal holding the pensieve right in the center of the outdated carpet. Three windows were set into the wall on the other end of the room, but the old curtains made the light coming through them murky, casting a grayish-brown glow across the entire space.

Scorpius walked over to the pensieve. It was the only thing in the room that wasn't brown or gray. Instead, it glowed with its own blue light. Hannah motioned to help him, but Scorp knew what he had to do. Nodding, Hannah left the room. Touching the tip of his wand to his head, Scorpius pulled away a silvery strand that would have looked like a thick piece of hair to someone who didn't know better. He dropped it into the pensieve.

"Rose, do you want me to come with you?" Scorpius asked carefully. He knew that Rose was embarrassed of what she'd done two days before, and there was no way of knowing how she would react when she found out what had actually happened. Scor smiled. If he wasn't careful here, it was likely he wouldn't be able to have children by the time they left. He wouldn't put it past Rose, especially if she was angry.

She gave him a sorry look. "I'd rather just go by myself." With that, she walked over to the pensieve and leaned forward to dunk her head into the bowl.

"Wait," Scor commanded her. He pulled her into his arms and gave her a long, passionate kiss. "Whatever you see in there, it doesn't matter, okay?" he told her. "I don't care about any of that. You're more important than what happened in there, do you hear me? Much, much more important." Rose nodded. Then, she bowed her head into the shimmering little pool of water in the pensieve. Scorpius watched as she vanished into the bowl.

He waited for hours, just sitting against the wall, praying Rose would come out okay. Hannah brought him some lunch around noon, but Scorp had lost his appetite. Finally, after what felt like a century, Rose was suddenly standing in the center of the odd room. Something seemed off about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Rose! Are you alright?" he wondered.

But she smiled at him as though absolutely nothing had happened, as if she hadn't just spend hours reliving what was arguably the worst night of her life. "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. What do you say we head back to the Burrow now, or else we'll miss dinner." Scor stared at Rose in disbelief. He'd been expecting tears, maybe anger or violence. Not…this.

"Uh… sure Rosie! Sounds great!" he stammered with a bit too much fake happiness in his voice, but she wasn't listening as she skipped out of the room. Scorp sighed. He chased her out of the room and down the stairs into the main area of the bar, which was starting to fill up for the night. When he turned to the fireplace, he found Rose waiting. She latched onto his arm and they apparated home.

They landed right in the doorway of the dining room as the rest of the family stampeded in for dinner. Rose took a seat across from Grandad Weasley and next to Fred. Scorpius sat next to her. "So!" she inquired cheerily. "How was everyone's day?"

Al sent Scorp an easily readable look. _What's up with Rose?_

_I don't know,_ Scor motioned back. _But I'll find out._

**A/N: okay, so this is like a thousand years overdue. I don't want to make excuses, but whether it was writer's block or just being too busy (or maybe the fact that I discovered Tumblr), but I just wasn't focusing on writing. I can't really remember where I wanted to take this story, so ideas are welcome!**


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